HC to hear AAP MP Sanjay Singh's bail plea Thursday, says not required to surrender till then

Lucknow, Aug 21 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has held that Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh need not surrender before a Sultanpur court till Thursday in connection with a case registered against him over a street protest in 2001.

The high court confirmed that it would hear the MP’s bail plea on Thursday, when it was scheduled to come up before the Lucknow bench along with a revision plea.

Justice K S Pawar passed the interim order on Wednesday, considering the urgency cited by Singh’s lawyers, who said he has to attend a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on Thursday.

The high court said till the case comes up before it on Thursday, “the accused revisionist is not required to surrender before the trial court”.

“It is further provided that any process issued by the trial court shall remain in abeyance till tomorrow,” the order added.

Singh and five others were convicted by a Sultanpur court on January 11, 2023, and their appeal dismissed by the sessions court on August 6 this year.

The state counsel argued in the high court that Singh’s revision plea was not maintainable as the sessions court had directed him to appear before the trial court on August 9 to serve out the sentence, but he has not surrendered.

The high court earlier heard the matter on August 14.

A day earlier, on August 13, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Singh, Samajwadi Party leader Anoop Sanda, and four others by the MP-MLA court in Sultanpur.

But the accused did not appear before the Sultanpur court for the hearing on Tuesday, and the local court took objection to this.

"The court has directed the police to arrest all the accused and produce them in the court by August 28," an official had told PTI on Tuesday. However, a written order was not available.

The case goes back to June 19, 2001, when a demonstration was held in Sultanpur’s Sabzi Mandi area under Sanda’s leadership.

Singh, along with former councillors Kamal Srivastava, Vijay Kumar, Santosh, and Subhash Chaudhary had taken part in that protest over power supply in the area. PTI CORR ABN ASH ASH